Phantasy Star Odds & Ends

No Sprite Backsies!

In the town of Mile on Motavia there is a female NPC with a unique sprite. She can be seen in the northwest part of town standing against the fence and hopelessly trying to sweep away the sand. Normally you can only approach her from the front, left and right. But if you use the walk through walls code (Game Genie Code RFPT-J6YE) you can approach her from the back!

And... She has no back.

Well I wasn't holding out on her actually having one. But I was just curious if she did. Sometimes sprites that are unreachable or only approachable from certain directions actually have additional animations. At some point in development their location or positioning gets changed, preventing you from seeing them all normally. But if she ever had one it's not there anymore.

These are her standard sprites. I captured them unfiltered so you can see the detail better. For the longest time I didn't notice that she was wearing a dust mask. I just thought she was really pale. But now that I've realised it I think it's a nice little detail that fits in well with her exercise in sandy futility. And then there's this...

This is her post Black Energy Wave sprite from the endgame. This sprite replaces her old ones once you return from Rykros and The Edge opens up. While tragic, it's actually a really nice looking sprite. They even have her broom laying next to her. It's a nice touch. The other dead townies are just a bit mundane. Probably because they are not unique and just stock townie sprites that you see everywhere. Well the soldier by the far right of the fence isn't used much. Everyone else is cloned all over Algo though.

There are some other unique sprites that do not have backs, such as Gyuna and the Bishop from Gumbious Temple. In the case of Gyuna, he is not normally reachable without the walk through walls code. No matter where you approach him from he will always be forward facing. I also assume he's just half a sprite because he does not move from behind the counter. The Bishop can be approached normally from the front, left and right. He'll have the same forward facing sprite regardless. Do you expect a man rumored to be 2000 years old to move for you? And of course he has no back sprite either.

Anyway, getting back to our dearly departed broom lady, to celebrate her uniqueness and her plucky determination in the face of total futility, I made a doll of her in Kisekae2:

I had a hard time deciding how to do her outfit. But upon closer examination of the sprites I believe she is wearing some kind of long cardigan or duster with a white collar and a white dress. Her outfit is similar to the clothing seen in Phantasy Star 2. It's reminiscent of Amy and Shir’s outfits. I decided on orange-brown eyes because they matched her broom. She likes to coordinate like that.

So here’s to you, Mile Broom Lady. I just know you’re up there in heaven futilely trying to sweep away the clouds.